Fright of the Living Dead: Smosh Edition
Chapter Summary: Eight Smosh members are left to climb their way to safety. But with one member on the verge of going insane, a life will be taken, and another will be brought back to its rightful person.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters nor Smosh along with its connected enterprises. I only own this story.
The group scrambled up the stairs, with Wes leading the way, followed by Ian, Courtney, Olivia, Mari carrying Sohinki, and Anthony carrying Keith. They all knew that the faster they ran, the faster they would get to the helicopter perched on top of the tower, with which they could escape. But with fatigue setting in, each step felt like fifty kilogram masses on their legs, and even more for Mari and Anthony, having to carry another person.
"How much farther?" Mari complained, struggling to carry Sohinki's small yet dense frame.
"Trust me!" Ian insisted, continuing to lead the group, "From the outside, it looked to be only five floors high!"
That's the thing: from the outside, it looked no more than five floors high, likely due to its gray colour and horizontal striped pattern. But in reality, it was a large cylinder, forty-five metres tall. They kept climbing on, floor after floor, continuing to run as far as they could from the zombies. The fire burning in their legs with every staircase climbed, the panic in their minds of their potential doom, yet it wasn't until they reached the 14th floor when one of them finally ran out of steam.
"I'll...take a little...nap right...here..." Mari muttered as she collapsed to the ground, dropping Sohinki in the process.
"Mari!" Olivia screamed, immediately running over to try to resuscitate her.
Acting on instinct, Courtney and Olivia began fanning Mari's face with their hands, hoping to lower her body temperature and return her to full strength. Anthony continued to console Keith, who was still crying over the death of Noah. Wes and Ian were scouting the tower, which Ian determined the roof to be directly above them. Everyone was caught up in their own task, except for one: Matthew Sohinki.
Sohinki slowly got up, wiped the tears from his eyes, and examined his surroundings. He was in the face of two daunting objects, with which he mentally connected them: Mari's handgun, which was pushed aside by Courtney in a panicked frenzy, and the silhouettes of Anthony and Keith's heads. Sohinki looked around furiously, no one was paying any sort of attention to him, and he knew that he had to take this chance. He stretched out his arm, grasping the handle of Mari's handgun and pointing the barrel straight at Anthony's head. The mental images of Keith leaving Shayne to die, Anthony killing Joven in cold blood, and Anthony leaving Noah alone in a zombie horde flashed through his mind has he pulled the trigger.
Immediately, everyone turned to the source of the deafening shot. The bullet soared straight through Anthony's left eye and out the other side as he fell to the ground, lifeless, like Shayne, Flitz, Joven, Lasercorn, Sabrina, Tyler, and Noah before him. The others could only look on in shock, both at Anthony's non-moving corpse, and Sohinki's unfathomable action.
"Sohinki!" Courtney screamed, shocked by what had just happened, "What the f**k?!"
Sohinki could not hear what she had said; he was too busy caught up in his own mind formulating his next plan. He had just killed a man who was responsible for the deaths of two of his friends, and it was time for him to go for his next target. He sprung up, grabbed Keith by the neck and positioned him in front. By then, Wes, Ian, Mari (who had Sohinki's previously confiscated gun), and Courtney (who recovered Anthony's gun) pointed their guns straight at Sohinki, but could not get a sure shot with Keith being used as a shield. All they could do was back Sohinki and Keith out of the room, pinning the duo against the outside stair railing.
"Sohinki, you don't need to do this," Wes insisted, trying to coax him into surrendering.
"Oh yes I do!" Sohinki retorted, aiming his gun straight at Keith's head, "He left Shayne to die! And selfishly left Noah alone on the first floor to die!"
"He had no choice!" Olivia stated, hoping to get Sohinki to listen, "We understand that you're a bit angry right now, but..."
"A BIT angry?!" Sohinki replied, exasperated by Olivia's understatement, "How would you feel if two of your close friends were killed by a man close to you?!"
"I'd be infurirated," Mari agreed, trying to rationalize with Sohinki, "But I wouldn't go out and straight-up kill him!"
"If someone goes out and mentally scars you for life you scar them back!" Sohinki shouted, still enraged over his closest friends turning on him, "By killing them..."
It became clear: Sohinki was too far down the road of insanity that rational talk wasn't going to bring him back to normal. But it's not like it mattered: they knew the only way out of this was to kill Sohinki, but they couldn't do anything while he was still holding Keith hostage. Their best hope was to lower his guard just enough that someone could kill him before he could kill Keith.
"I have an idea," Courtney announced, passing Olivia her gun and slowly stepping towards Sohinki.
"Be careful, he's unpredictable," Ian warned, not wanting Courtney to put herself in too much danger.
"Sohinki, I understand how you feel," Courtney consoled, trying to get Sohinki to listen, "They were my friends too."
"I've known Joven for YEARS!" Sohinki exclaimed, recalling the incredible moments that they've had together, "You can't just forget something like that!"
"I'm not asking you to forget it. None of us will be able to," Courtney clarified, "I'm asking you to calm down..."
"Why should I calm down!?" Sohinki asked, finally starting to sob, "My friends are dead!"
"Yes, they are," Courtney replied, setting herself up to convince Sohinki, "But they're gone now, and killing Keith isn't going to bring them back, right?"
Sohinki continued his grip on Keith and the gun, but unexpectedly muttered, "No...".
"We'll all have to accept the fact that they can't come back, and we have to continue our lives the way that they would want us to," Courtney rationalized, hoping that her message was getting through to him, "Would they want you to kill Keith?"
Sohinki took a minute to think to himself before answering, "No...they wouldn't want me to kill Keith,".
"You damn right they wouldn't want you to kill me!" Keith interjected, fearing for his life.
"Keith! Shut up!" Courtney exclaimed, slowly walking towards Sohinki, "You know what you need to do, right?"
"You're right...they wouldn't want me to kill Keith..." Sohinki muttered, still keeping his grip on Keith. Wes, Ian, Mari, and Olivia looked on in shock that Courtney managed to do that. Courtney managed a faint smile, until with a quick flick of the arm, Sohinki pointed the gun at Courtney and shot her in her right thigh, severing her femoral artery and causing her to fall to the ground. She was left screaming and crying in pain, whilst compressing her wound.
"Courtney!" Olivia screamed, taking one step forward before being stopped by Ian.
"Don't move," Ian ordered, trying to keep her safe, "He might shoot you too."
"Hey, you didn't say anything about me killing you!" Sohinki taunted, tightening his grip on Keith.
"Sohinki! This has gone too far!" Wes exclaimed, knowing that there was no way to get to Sohinki rationally, "You won't get away with this!"
"Remember Wes, I'm outside on a staircase balcony," Sohinki reminded, asserting his dominance, "If you shoot at me, you either kill Keith, or you kill me and I pull Keith off the building with me to our deaths. You don't understand; I'm unstoppable!"
At that moment, almost as if it was on cue, an axe flew down from the sky, embedding itself into Sohinki's brain, causing him to lose consciousness and drop his gun. Immediately, Keith spun around and shoved him over the railing, sending him flying down to the ground. If he didn't die from the axe, he certainly died from the fall.
"Courtney! Don't worry, you'll be alright!" Olivia remarked, while taking off her plaid cardigan to wrap around Courtney's leg block the wound.
"I'm fine," Courtney insisted, trying to sit up, "Just wrap it tight."
While Olivia was tending to Courtney's injury, Wes, Mari, Ian and Keith ran our to the staircase and looked up, confused on the whereabouts of the origin of the axe that had saved them. What they saw was a man; unexpected, but very familiar. They all knew who he was, one of them screaming in happiness. They didn't know how he got to their location, but was glad that he was there anyway.
"Hey guys," the man said while waving at them, "You look like you could use a hand".
Eventually Sohinki had to crack. I felt that this was the right time to do it in order to have the group experience their first legitimate setback instead of simply having people die. The decision to kill off Anthony wasn't as difficult as the others. I knew that at least one of Ian and Anthony had to die, and I figured that Ian would provide a big leader presence in this kind of scenario. With regards to the identity of the mystery man, I don't know if it's obvious, but I don't think I've provided too many hints into who he is. If I do get any readers at all, I encourage you to write a review. Give your thoughts. I'd like to see what opinions you have on where this could go.